Fall is the quiet season for plumbing in Durham. The irrigation is winding down, the first freeze is still weeks away, and the holidays have not arrived yet. That makes October a comfortable month to walk through the house with the short list below. Each item takes a few minutes now, and each one heads off a repair that would cost more and land at a worse time later.
Start outside
Freezing weather reaches Durham earlier and stays longer than many newcomers expect, with freezing nights running from November into March. Outdoor plumbing feels it first, so it is the natural place to begin.
- Disconnect and drain the garden hoses. A hose left on a spigot traps water in the faucet body, and that trapped water is what splits the pipe behind the wall when it freezes.
- Slip an insulated cover over each outdoor spigot. They cost a few dollars and stay on until spring.
- Shut down and drain the irrigation system, and glance at the backflow preventer for drips. It sits above ground and freezes before anything else. Many local water systems also require annual backflow testing, which we can handle at the same time.
- Wrap any exposed supply line to an outdoor kitchen, a pool, or a detached building with foam insulation.
If your home is on a well
Many homes outside the municipal water systems in Durham, Orange, Person, and Alamance counties draw from wells, and a well system deserves its own moment on the list. Check the well house or pit for gaps where cold air gets in, and make sure the heat source or insulation protecting the pressure tank and lines is in place. Then listen to the pump for a cycle or two. A pump that runs longer than it used to, or clicks on and off rapidly, is telling you something about the pressure switch, the tank bladder, or a leak in the line. It is much easier to have that looked at now than to discover a well pump problem on a January morning with no water in the house.
Give the water heater some attention
Incoming water gets colder from now until spring, so your water heater works harder for the same warm shower. Sediment that settled over the summer makes that job harder still. Flush a few gallons from the drain valve at the bottom of the tank until the water runs clear, or let us handle a professional water heater flush if that valve has not been opened in years. Lift the test lever on the relief valve for a second and confirm water comes out and then stops. While you are there, read the manufacture date on the label. A tank heater past ten years is near the end of its working life, and fall is a far calmer time to plan its replacement than the week before Christmas.
Take a flashlight under the house
The Piedmont’s red clay drains slowly, and after a wet fall the crawl space under a Durham home can hold moisture for weeks. One trip under the house this season, with a flashlight, tells you a lot. Look for four things.
- Standing water or damp soil, which points to drainage that a sump pump or better grading would correct.
- Bare supply pipe with no insulation, which will freeze in the first hard cold snap. Wrapping it now takes minutes.
- Open foundation vents and gaps around pipe penetrations, which let cold air blow across the lines. Close and seal them for the winter.
- The main water shutoff valve. Turn it once to confirm it moves, because a valve that has seized is a hard thing to discover while water is running across a floor.
A quick look inside
Open each cabinet under a sink and run a hand along the supply lines and the trap, checking for moisture, stains, or mineral crust. Put a few drops of food coloring in each toilet tank and wait fifteen minutes. If color appears in the bowl, the flapper is leaking and wasting water around the clock. Finally, read the water meter at night and again in the morning with nothing running. If it moved, there is a leak somewhere in the system, and professional leak detection can find it before it reaches a floor or a wall.
Get the drains ready for company
Holiday cooking sends grease, starch, and food scraps down the kitchen line in volumes the rest of the year never sees, and a drain that runs a little slow in October tends to stop in November. Pay attention to any sink or tub that empties slowly or gurgles when another fixture runs. Those are the early signs of a partial blockage, and a quick drain clearing now means the line is fully open when the house is full.
We are happy to handle the rest
Happy Home Services has served the Triangle since 1955 with honest, upfront pricing with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you would rather have one of our plumbers flush the water heater, check the well system, or inspect the crawl space, schedule online or reach us 24/7 by phone or website chat. A fall plumbing visit is a short appointment, and it turns what might have been a winter emergency into planned work on a day you chose.